the jedi are jerks

i had the day off today, and while doing some chores around the house, i had the tv on. spike was showing several star wars movies. only paying marginal attention, i noticed something i never had before. the jedi are jerks.

sure, they outwardly appear to be benevolent protectors of the masses, but some of their comments and behaviors seem suspect. in episodes 1, 2 and 3, they work tirelessly to preserve a dying government whose main goal appears to be not asking too many questions when one member planet invades another. so pretty much their overall stance is not to rock the boat.

that general theme has to have some effect on individual jedi, right? to answer that, let's look at pretty much any interaction a jedi has with a non-force sensitive person in the movies. pretty much every instance shows the jedi talking down to "lower" life forms. qui-gon and obi-wan pretty much bought jar-jar binks from the gunguns, claiming he owed them a life-debt. when queen amidala questioned their tactics on tatooine, qui-gon (thinking he was talking to one of the queen's doubles) basically responded by saying he could care less about her reservations and that nobody had to know.

annikan tried to stop mace windu from killing chancellor palpatine, and windu replied with, "nah, he's too dangerous. i'm gonna just go ahead and execute him here without due process of law getting in the way."

the main reason i thought about this, though, was the patronizing way the jedi council reacted to meeting annikan. they kept calling him "young skywalker" and were quick to say he was not worthy to join their little club. i half expected one of tehm to demand that he shine their shoes!

yoda, voice of reason for the republic, is supposed to be able to see the future and thwart evil-doers plans. yet at every opportunity, when asked what the future holds, he always responds with something like, "clouds the future, the dark side does." how convenient, jedi master.

perhaps the most egregious example of their jerkiness is their knack for controlling people's minds. basically, if someone responds to them in a way they don't want to hear, they simply change that person's mind for them.

face it, the jedi are jerks.